
Nathaniel Rodwell-Simon
The University’s crest and motto on a flag outside of Rosenwald Hall.
Dozens of faculty members have recently signed a letter calling on the University to take a public stance against the second Trump administration’s crackdown on higher education, which has included visa revocations and research funding cuts.
“We ask that the President and Provost commit, in writing and in public, to the defense of the University and its ideals,” the letter, addressed to UChicago faculty colleagues, reads. “We firmly believe that the joint commitment of peers to these ideals, and to mutual defense of them, is our best hope for sustaining the institutions to which we have dedicated our professional lives.”
The letter indicates a growing frustration among some faculty members that the University has not joined in “collective efforts to defend academic freedom in the United States.” In the past week, over 250 faculty members signed a separate petition asking President Paul Alivisatos to sign the April 22 American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU) statement opposing “government overreach” into higher education institutions.
The faculty letter points to faculty senates of other Ivy Plus universities and member institutions of the Association of American Universities that have passed or are in the process of passing resolutions reaffirming their commitment to academic freedom. On April 6, the Rutgers University Senate passed a motion calling for the creation of a “mutual defense compact” with other Big Ten Conference universities, an alliance that would allow those universities to pool funds and legal resources in light of fears of government overreach into academia. Since then, faculty senates from more than one third of the 18 universities in the Big Ten have signed resolutions urging administrators to join.
The faculty letter also cites that several faculty senates are requesting public statements of solidarity from their leaders. At Yale University, the faculty senate circulated a letter to all faculty asking the university to commit to challenging “unlawful demands that threaten academic freedom and university self- governance.”
The UChicago faculty letter similarly outlines six commitments for the University to make, which include affirming “the absolute right to academic and political speech, within the bounds of civil engagement, by all members of the community,” refusing to assist in “the removal of any person from the university on grounds of the content of their speech,” and resisting outside pressure that could “affect appointments, teaching, grading, research, or hiring.”
The list of demands reads nearly identically to those detailed in Classics professor Clifford Ando’s Maroon op-ed, “The Lines We Will Not Cross.” Ando, who has criticized what he sees as a continued lack of response from University administration, was the original author of the letter and first sent it to the Committee of the Council on April 2.
The committee is a seven-member group chosen from members of the Council of the University Senate. The committee’s rules of procedure allow faculty members to send memoranda to the committee proposing agenda items on “topics of general concern.” Memoranda are then brought to the entire 51-member council during monthly meetings, at which the president and the provost are usually present.
According to committee member professor Julie Orlemanski, the letter has been circulated to all council members, but discussion of the letter was not on the agenda for the council’s April 29 meeting.
UChicago has been less outspoken than some of its peer institutions in denouncing demands from the White House instructing universities such as Harvard and Columbia to place departments under academic receivership and roll back diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
Alivisatos wrote an email to the University community on April 25 addressing the “profound political contestation regarding the future of institutions of higher education” but stopped short of making concrete commitments and included no direct mention of the Trump administration.
He wrote of “important interests at stake at this moment, as well as a set of obligations that we must and will honor.”
The University wrote in an April 28 public statement that it “has a long-standing practice of not joining collective statements written by others.” The University has in previous instances invoked the 1967 Kalven Report, which articulates its philosophy of refraining to comment on social and political issues of the day to afford its individual members freedom of expression. “While the University’s advocacy may not always be visible, it is ongoing,” the statement continued.
Alivisatos did not join more than 560 other higher education leaders from across the country in signing the April 22 AACU statement titled “A Call for Constructive Engagement.” The leaders of seven of the eight Ivy League institutions signed the statement, as well as those of several Chicago-area universities, including the presidents of Northeastern Illinois University, Northwestern University, Chicago State University, and Dominican University.
The number of UChicago faculty urging Alivisatos to join those leaders continues to grow.
“With higher education in the United States under threat, the University of Chicago cannot remain silent,” the final sentence of the petition reads.
Editor’s note, April 30, 3:40 p.m.: This article was updated to include mention of the University’s “Statement on Advocacy” released publicly on April 28.